May 13, 2016

On the evening of Monday May 9, the members of Shorinji Kempo Toronto Branch gathered in the CAMH Main Gym to hold our 21st Annual Shorinji Kempo Charity Kickathon for CAMH.

Kicking earnestly

It is a tradition in Shorinji Kempo that all members perform some form of community service in the month of May to honor the legacy of our founder Kaiso Doshin So, especially his emphasis that personal development must be aligned with concrete action to help others.

Jun and gyaku geri

In our Kickathon we perform 500 full power kicks with kiai (yell!) in return for sponsorship. One of the hardest things about it is the lack of inhalation during intense activity! This year we seemed to have gotten off lightly in terms of ill effects, but most of us experienced leg pain after a two day lag (unusual).

Thanks to our extremely generous sponsors we were able to raise $9,115.00 this year.

At the time of the event we only knew that we had raised over $8000

Since our event began we have raised $139,255 for the CAMH Foundation. The funds raised in the Kickathon are used by CAMH to support drug addiction treatment programs and research into the causes of drug addiction. Our hope is that individuals trapped in addiction will be able to reach permanent and contented recovery via this funding.

Happy that we survived!

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our wonderful sponsors and also to Lidia and her team at the CAMH Foundation for all their assistance with our 2016 Kickathon event.